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My dirty little secret: I have tesco value chocolates!

Tesco Value after dinner mints have been one of my favourite finds in the last few months, though I have to keep them a dirty little secret from my friends lest they think I'm a cheapskate. I picked them up from Tesco for 50p though that was a temporary half price special offer and they usually cost about a pound. I don't think I've ever found a non-dairy brand of chocolates for quite this cheap before.

===The chocolates===These mints are rather like many varieties of shop's own brand after eights (goodness knows that I've tried enough chocolates in my time), but rather a bit thicker. They still have a thick crispy chocolate square with a mint fondant filling though

The chocolate is dark and is not particularly high quality - it's got quite a lot of sugar in it and a relatively low percentage cocoa. But since one of the things that my friends constantly have to listen to me grumbling about is the general lack of good non-dairy mid-percentage plain chocolate, this is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. If I wanted a posh high percentage cocoa chocolate, I'd have bought one of the many varieties that exist!

The one disadvantage that I have found is that the chocolates quickly developed a white bloom to them. I checked their use by date and it was still well within the right date. I brushed off the bloom and they seemed to be perfectly edible underneath. Once they got to that stage, they didn't poison me, though the taste was definitely inferior - the chocolate had got to a brittle state.

Each box contains about 20 chocolates in them, each of which is about an inch by and inch square and a quarter inch deep. The chocolate layer makes up most of this chocolate, with a creamy white mint fondue inside them.

===The box===The real shame about these is the box. It's a white and blue tesco value branded box. Not very subtle. It's a shame about this otherwise they would make quite a nice box of chocolates to bring out at the dinner table. As it is, they will need decanting into some other box and then they can be passed off as posh after dinner chocolates.

===Value for money===These chocolates are 200g for about a pound, which I think is excellent value for money for interesting chocolates. These have a bit of a cheaper feel than after eights.

===Nutrition===The ingredients are plain chocolate (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, soya lecithin, flavourings), sugar, glucose syrup, sugar syrup, peppermint oil. Two mints have 90kcal, 1g protein, 13g carbohydrates, 10.3g sugar, 3.8g fat. They are suitable for vegetarians and allergy wise just have soya in them, though they warn against it as it uses the same equipment as other chocolate so may have traces of nuts.

===Conclusion===Shhhh, don't tell my friends about this! In particular don't tell any of them if they get a nice hand-embroidered box with a selection of chocolates in them where they come from! I'll be buying these again - they're nice and non-dairy and great value for money too.

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Nice for an after dinner treat

I have cut down a lot on buying cakes and biscuits lately mainly because I am on a permanent diet without actually losing weight I might add, and Mr. Benn has to watch his cholesterol, so during the week we just have a couple of Tesco Value After Dinner Mints.

I switched brands from After Eight Mints mainly because this is a cheaper option but does not have a cheaper taste. The only thing that I have found cheapo about these is the packaging, which is the usual blue and white packaging with Tesco Value stamped on the front of the box in red, and on opening the box there is no nice individual little sleeves in which the chocolates sit, just a plastic inner tray on which they are all lined up. I can't mark down because of the packaging as we all know what to expect with any value range they have to save pennies somewhere to be able to sell so cheaply, better that they save them on the packaging rather than the quality of what is inside.

Tesco after dinner mints are plain chocolate squares with mint flavoured centres. The chocolate is nice and sweet and not bitter like some dark chocolate can be and on biting into them does indeed have a nice soft white minty centre.

The nutritional information is on the front of the box and a serving of 2 mints contains 90 calories, sugar 10.3g fat 3.8g 2.39g saturates and trace salt, and currently £1.00 per 200g box which contains 20 mints.

I often wonder who decides what a serving is I mean 2 mint chocs lol I have just scoffed 5 whilst writing this review, that must been where I am going wrong with the dieting, might try to stick to the serving guidelines in future.

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Great tasting treat

The traditional After Eights are something we always have at Christmas, but when shopping the other day we saw the After Eights and I really wanted a pack. The only downside? Over £3! Its very rarely I treat myself but £3 and I know the box would be gone in minutes if I'm left alone with them. So as I started to walk away and save my money, I saw these Tesco Value version. At £1 a box, I thought why not, lets give them a try...and I'm glad I did!

The Value range is certainly that-value. It's very stripped down packaging, and certainly no thrills. It has the usual blue stripes. And looks very cheap, but that doesn't matter, its what's inside that counts. After getting inside the pack, you will choice they aren't individually wrapped like the banded make.

So how do they taste? Honestly...I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between these and After Eights. The chocolate and the mint combine delightfully to give you that great minty creamy taste in your mouth. Perhaps the only slight difference between these is that they are slightly smaller.

The mints taste sweet and they are very moreish. Nutritionally, don't have these if you are on a diet! Each mint contains around 45 calories, which would be equivalent to about a 5 minute run. Ad that's only id you have one mint. If you are anything like me, I can easily eat half a pack in seconds..that's a lot of exercise to burn those calories off!

Overall, I would say these are a bargain-give them a try and see for yourself!

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Great value and good to eat

No doubt about it, Tesco Value After-dinner Mints are really shoddily packaged. 99p's worth come in a little white oblong box, with just a few splahes of the 'Tesco colours' (red and blue) to enliven it.

Once you've fought your way through the cellophane outer wrap (there's no handy ribbon pull-strip given on this budget product) and the cardboard box is opened, it is, however a different matter. Firstly, you don't get all that faffing around with dark-chocolate mints individually-wrapped in black envelopes against the background of a black-painted box with these, not like you do if you've bought the (presumably) market leader in after-dinner-mints 'After Eights' - no, not at all. It is obvious with Tesco Value mints to see how many of the chocolates remain in the packet after it has been opened, because they are clear to see against the white background on the sides of the box. This counts as a definite plus, in my book.

More importantly the chocolate used to make these value mints is somehow of excellent quality - a fact I hesitate to shout about in case some skinflint at the Tesco Value range notices and has the recipe changed immediately. I wrote a dooyoo review a while back in which I described the caramel 'treats' in Ben & Jerrys 'Caramel Chew Chew' ice cream as being of dog-chocolate standard; and that's the trouble with a lot of these budget confectionary ranges - they're cheap but they taste cheap and nasty too.

For some reason the Tesco Value mints are not at all like this. They're made from thick, smooth dark chocolate, nice and bitter and it's much, much more chunky than you'd find in your standard 'After Eight' - which it has to be in order to contain the chocolates' filling effeciently, because the minty center in Tesco Value Mints is effectively liquid, rather than being a soft fondant. It's a very sweet, very minty filling - strong-tasting too, so it's a good point that there isn't too much of it in each mint - just enough to offset the amout of dark chocolate they've used in fact.

It's difficult for me to say - all other things being equal - which brand I prefer, since Tesco Value mints and 'After Eights' are in fact surprisingly different products. I would certainly sometimes buy the Value mints in preference to the more expensive brand based on my personal preference for their taste and texture alone - but then if you prefer a more delicate, chewier after dinnner mint sometime After Eights have their own advantages too.

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Chunky minty chocolate at a great price

The packaging on these Tesco value dinner mints may seem a little cheap and nasty with the basic red and white design; but this isn't necessarily a bad thing, because if you are looking around for a cheaper substitute for one of the bigger brands, then there is no doubt that this is the product that you are after with the basic and no frills box. At the time of writing this, Tesco's have them on their shelf for a standard price of just £1 for a 200g box, as compared to After Eight mints at £2.65 for 300g.

On opening the box, you still get the heavenly chocolaty minty smell which you would get with After Eight's, and they are lined up in the box as you would expect but without the individual paper sleeves. These cheeky little numbers are completely naked!

Compared to the After Eight's, there doesn't seem to be as many chocolate mints in the box, but they are considerably chunkier and less fragile. The first bite reveals a much thicker chocolate and messy runny mint cream inner which can get a little sickly after eating your way through a full box. I recommend throwing a handful of these into some soft scoop vanilla ice cream and then mashing it all up to make a sort of mint choc chip ice cream with a different twist.

If you are holding a dinner party then I would suggest binning the packet and popping the chocolates on a plate, now I'm not suggesting that for one minute that no one will spot the difference; but after a few glasses of wine who knows?

I particularly chose these Tesco value dinner mints over the After Eight's because of the big price difference and that 200g seems to be just enough for me. I'm sure that the people at After Eight will tell me otherwise, but I think that the use of those gimmicky paper sleeves are just a needless bit of over packaging and I prefer to stick with the cheaper brand to reduce on the amount of wastage.

I understand that Tesco Value products can be a bit hit and miss, making some of their products nowhere near as good as the more expensive brands, but I think that in this instance, Tesco have provided a good cheaper alternative which really does allow you to save those pennies.

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Tesco Value After Dinner Mints

I am a huge fan of After Eight Dinner Mints and it is a bit of a tradition that we get a box or two every Christmas. Since I moved out in February last year I have begun to realise how expensive everything is and how every little thing adds up. Especially during the recession! This is doubled at Christmas time as of course I'm buying things for Christmas, but also for my birthday which is the day before New Years Eve and then New Years Eve itself!

When I went to pick up a box up After Eights I saw that they were a whopping £2.37 and I know that I am going to get through at least 2 boxes. Luckily there was a display of Tesco own brand nearby so I thought I would pick them up. However when I reached the chocolate aisle I spotted Tesco Value After Dinner Mints £1. This was a smaller box but it still worked out at nearly half price! What the hell I thought and I picked a box up.

The packaging is typical Tesco Value and leaves nothing to be desired. It is white with the Tesco Value blue and red striped logo in the corner with the words 'After Dinner Mints' written in faded red on it. Underneath that is a description saying 'Plain chocolates with mint flavoured fondant centres,' and there is a picture of a few tasty looking mints next to it. This is certainly not a box you would want on your dinner table but this can easily be avoided by just putting some on a plate.

The box is covered by a cellophone wrapper, presumably to keep them fresh and this is easy enough to take off. When you open the cardboard box you see about 25 mints in there. They are in a plastic rack and not individually wrapped. I expected this as it would cut costs and when I think about it, it's a good idea as it cuts down on mess - I found a wrapper in my bag pocket from a branded After Eight the other day that must have been there since Christmas!

The mints themselves were like After Eights in shape but they were most definitely thicker. I thought this made a nice change but the downside is that if they had made them thinner they could have fitted more into the box!

When you first open a box of After Eights I find you are hit by a delicious chocolatey minty aroma and I wasn't disppointed by the Tesco Value, they smelt so good I wanted to wolf them all down!

The box says that they are made of plain chocolate but I thought that they seemed to be made of dark chocolate which made them even more delicious. When I bit into it, the chocolate seemed to be ever so slightly thicker than the branded product and had a bit of a 'crack' to it. The peppermint didn't let it down either, it was creamy and full of flavour.

As soon as I finished eating one I wanted another straight away so I think they passed the taste test!

To summerise, I think that these mints tasted just like After Eights apart from the fact that they are a bit thicker which I think makes them amazing value and an excuse to buy them year round! Buy a pack, arrange them nicely on a plate, bring them out with the coffees at the end of dinner and I guarantee that your friends will be impressed!

Tesco Value After Dinner Mints cost £1 for a 200g box making them 40p per 100g compared to After Eights 90p per 100g.

They contain 450 calories per 100g and 18.9 of fat per 100g which interestingly eough is marked only medium by the food standards agency!

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Very much recommended

==Background:==

When I was growing up I used to love as most kids do Christmas. One of the many reasons for this was the chocolates and sweets we were allowed as this special time. Back then one of these treats was After Eight Mints, these were always considered to be as expensive and the height of good taste.

I was looking for some After Dinner mints the other day and I saw the traditional After Eights but next to them I noticed Tesco's own Value After Dinner Mints. As I was on a strict budget and I was curious to try these I decided to purchase them. I have tried quite a few items from the Tesco Value range and on the whole I have been impressed by them, so I thought this too I must experiment with.

==Price:==

These compare very favourably with the conventional branded mints. My packet of After Dinner mints cost just £1.00 for a 200 gram packet. In the same store the After Eight mints cost £2.73 for a slightly large 300g packet.

==Packaging:==

The Tesco After Dinner Mints are similar in concept to the more established branded ones. They both come in a similar rectangular box and was it not for the very different design on the box you would think shape and size wise these were the branded ones.

I must admit I was impressed by the designs on the Value product. The idea behind all the Value range is to keep costs as low as possible so not much is spent on design and making the product look as good as the branded items.

Yes it is not as distinctive or as eye catching, but for me it looks effective and appealing. Displaying pictures of the tempting looking mints on all sides of rectangular package.The product comes in a cellophane wrapper, that is easy to remove. Once this is removed I noticed were as the branded item is a box that you have to open and close every time to get a mint this one had lip which you peeled back and I found difficult to shut again once opened.

It is on only the base of the box I find all the useful information about the product itself. I found I had to be very careful turning the box over as the mints seemed to want to fall out the box.

On the bottom of the box, I was advised of the Allergic advice, Ingredients, the Nutritional values for 2 mints and for 100g packet and the Tesco Promise. All this information was well laid out and easy to read. The only thing I would like to see is the Nutritional value per mint and also per box would have been more useful than per half box.

When I opened the box, I was initially surprised. I had expected to see the mints in their own individual wrapper like the branded items. But they were held in their own compartment all 20 of them without any additional coverings in a plastic moulded holder.

When I pulled one out it looked very similar in size, depth and to the branded ones. If anything I would say these look at first glance to be thicker and slightly more substancial in appearance than the more expensive branded ones. I would describe them as 'chunkier'.

There was a little wasted space in the box and I think 25 mints could easily fit into the box. The individual chocolate segments did not fit comfortably in their relevant slots a couple seemed out of position and I found it difficult initially to make them look as they should have done all neatly arranged and tempting to look at.

As soon as I took of the cellophane I was greeted by a very appealing thick dark chocolate mint aroma, it was a lovely smell. It reminded me instinctively of the branded mints and I spent the next couple of minutes enjoying the sweet and tempting smell. That alone was making my mouth water with anticipation.

==Storage: ==

This product should be stored in a cool, dry place.

Each box clearly has a best before date printed on it. Mine gave me 18 months to consume the product, but in reality it would last less then three days in my household.

==Taste:==

I bit into my first chocolate mint. It immediately tasted to me like dark chocolate. It was very pleasant and I could see the peppermint inside the remaining mint slightly oozing out. The peppermint was very pronounced as I worked my way through the mint, it was strong and lingered in my mouth. With a creamy, rich and satisfying mint taste.

The mint was more solid than the branded items, it is more of a bite into it to break it up. the peppermint and chocolate combine well leaving a satisfying taste in my mouth. I found them very morish and I was tempted to eat more of these tantilising little mints.

After a couple of minutes I realised I had a slight aftertaste of mint still in my mouth rather than chocolate. This made me want another mint to enjoy and lovely aroma and taste all over again.

== My Opinion:==

I found this a very good alternative to the more expensive branded alternatives. The mints for me tasted with similar with equal appeal to the others. They had the super satisfying peppermint flavour that melts on your tongue. The only noticeable difference is that the chocolate coating it is thicker and requires more of a bite to break the mint.

I found the mint very satisfying and I would not be ashamed at all to give this to my friends obviously after dinner!! The quality I believe is in this product and I found I really enjoyed trying this.

For me the main difference other than the packaging is the fact the mints are not individually wrapped. Which is both an advantage and a disadvantage for me. The advantage is you don't find lots of empty wrappers left in the box, very annoying!! But the disadvantage is it adds a feeling of luxury and each one had almost been individually crafted just for me.

The price is a big draw for me, especially as I think this is a quality little mint produced within an attractive looking box. I found it annoying that my box would not close up I must admit in the end I had to get a piece id cellotape to hold it in place.

I also think for such a treat it is amazingly low in calories at just 45 calories per mint. I'm sure that anyone could eat to many of these as I think after a few of these they could be quite a sickly feeling.

For me this is a very good alternative to the more expensive branded After Dinner Mints. The quality for me is in the taste of the mints themselves and I was more than satisfied with this and I must admit I will be purchasing these again. However if I attend a Dinner party I would not give these to the host or if I was giving a party myself I would use the branded items, only because they are more traditional and look more sophisticated. I suppose I could always put them on a plate and see what reaction I got!

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I can see these becoming a staple of my diet for the forseeable future!

Last week, at the age of 23, I was fitted with fixed braces. Once they were on and I saw that they are barely noticeable (I got clear brackets), my thoughts quickly turned to all the foods I would no longer be able to eat.

I do have a sweet tooth, and I am also on a low-fat diet. I've lost two stone in the last six months or so and I'm not about to gain it back on my way to pretty teeth! So I needed something to satisfy that craving, that didn't have a huge fat content, but also wasn't hard, sticky, crunchy, gooey, chewy, etc, and not TOO much sugar. Not an easy task. If anyone has braces, has had them or has kids with them, please comment with suggestions!!

Anyway, on a trip round Tesco for soft foods for that tricky first week (which I actually didn't need - no pain whatsoever!), I stood for a ridiculously long time in the sweets and chocolate aisle sadly gazing at all those treats I couldn't have. I figured normal chocolate that I could suck on would be the obvious choice, but that's not all that exciting really. Then I spotted Tesco Value chocolate mints. Easy to bite into, soft on the inside without being sticky - perfect!!

I'm never a brand snob when it comes to supermarket own brands, half the time I can barely tell the difference, and some I actually prefer. All that Tesco Value chocolate I ate during my student days (hence the need for weight loss in the first place!!) was not just because I was counting my pennies.

Looks-wise, admittedly these aren't quite so pretty as a traditional box of After Eights, but if you're having a dinner party you can always pop them on a plate (as illustrated by the helpful 'serving suggestion'...genius!). Packaging is standard of Tesco Value products, red and white stripes and a photograph of the product with nutritional info clearly stated on the front of the box.

Inside are 20 mints split into sections of five, with none of those little "envelopes" you get with After Eights. For me this is a plus because there's nothing worse than putting your hand into the box to find them empty and I don't really find them too necessary.

The mints themselves are thicker than most after dinner mints, I'd say the thickness of two After Eights stuck together. Both the chocolate and fondant filling are thicker, yet they are easy to bite into (even newly braced!) or melt in the mouth. The peppermint filling is smooth and contrasts well with the dark chocolate (not too bitter) without being an overpowering flavour.

I mentioned wanting something low fat. Well, chocolate is never going to be that, but these aren't too bad for my purposes as I find, especially now I'm eating carefully, I can make each one last a long time. Per serving (which I believe is two or three mints - unfortunately I no longer have the box!) there is 90 calories and 3.8g fat. Not too bad for a satisfying treat.

And the price? £1 for 200g (20 mints). This is really good value, because after dinner mints no matter how moreish are not the kind of thing you are going to devour in one sitting anyway. Compared to standard After Eights, you could get almost three boxes for the price of just one 300g box - and no disappointing empty envelopes!

Another Tesco Value hit for me - any more suggestions of "brace friendly" sweets very much appreciated! :)

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Give them a go

I love After Eights, and a couple of weeks ago around the time I was placing my online shopping order with Tesco, I had a bit of a craving for mint chocolate, especially After Eights. At nearly three quid a box I would have felt a bit guilty shelling out on a box of chocolates for myself, however I spotted Tesco's mint thins for just a pound a box, and decided I could justify giving them a try!

The chocolates come in a lime green box with a picture of the chocolates on the front. It's pretty boring and nowhere near as fancy as the embossed dark green box you'd expect from Nestle's After Eights, but it serves it's purpose.

Inside the box, the chocolates are lined up neatly in a plastic tray - there's no little paper sleeves as you would get with your After Eights, but then again, they just go in the bin don't they, so that's not too important.

As far as appearance goes, the chocolates look very similar to the leading brand, being square with a slightly rippled effect to the chocolate, however I don't think the colour of the chocolate is quite as dark.

Biting into these, I could tell that the plain chocolate shell was not quite Nestle quality - it had a blander taste and was not so rich, but still nice all the same, and the difference was only very slight, and not overly noticeable - especially when you were on your third or fourth one!

The mint fondant centre had a lovely sweet peppermint taste, and I thought there was just the right ratio of chocolate to mint centre - any more and it would have been sickly. The centre is of course a mint fondant, and so was very sweet and sugary, yet it was smooth and like I said, managed not to be in any way sickly.

Nutritional Info: Per two mints

90 calories1g protein12.9g carbs3.7g fat

As I think I mentioned earlier, a 200g box of these mints costs just £1 from Tesco, which I think is very good value, as they are almost as good as the leading brand.

Despite the slight difference in taste of plain chocolate (and it is slight) and the fact the packaging is not quite as luxurious as other brands, I thought these chocolates were really nice, and I wouldn't have any problems buying them again - for just £1 it would be rude not to really!

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A good value product

I bought a box of these dinner mints last week as at the moment I am trying out the value brands. I love chocolate and so I am very fussy and will only buy the big brands.

I was pleasantly surprised with these mints, they are made with plain chocolate and have a white mint fondant in the centre which is a little bit runny but it has a nice flavour. I don`t really like plain chocolate so I was expecting to hate them but they are quite nice.

Nestle After eight mints are the best and the fondant is a lot thicker but they currently cost £2.79 where as the Tesco value dinner mints cost 75p for a 200g box , you do get a 100g less with these mints and they will never beat After eight mints but they are still very good value for money.

I shall be buying these for Christmas to give to my family after our lunch as they are a great alternative to other brands

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If you want After Eights buy the original, these just don't cut it!

Tesco After Dinner Mints are based on 'After Eight Mints' . It has to be said at the start they are nowhere near as refined a product as the originals.

The chocolate on these smells sweet and slightly greasy and the peppermint flavoured filling has not even been anywhere near peppermint oil. These sweets are thicker than the originals and completely devoid of peppermint flavouring.

The box is rectangular and white coloured with blue at the ends and Tesco Value plastered all over it. So, if you were intending to go posh and serve these 'after dinner' you would need to remove them from the box and put them on a plate, or tray.

When you open the box there is a plastic insert and the sweet sit in this. Personally, I don't like this because it is another case of excess packaging. Making the box a little less cheap looking and strengthening it would save on plastics. There are twenty sweets in a box.

Like all chocolate, these are not very healthy in large quantities. One Tesco After Dinner Mint has 5.2gms sugar and 45 calories.

A box of these weighs 200 grams and costs 79p. They have a long best before date too which is something to watch out for on Tesco Value products. The box I have here has a date reading: September 2009.

I was not very keen on these although I did eat them. They are sickly, hard and don't have much of a peppermint taste but there again, they are cheap and I wouldn't have expected to get something that matched up to After Eight Mints for a third of the price.

These are much better than the Walkers equivalent which you will find at 99p a box on markets and in cheap discount shops, though. It's case of getting what you pay for which is often the case with Tesco Value products. I must admit that there are exceptions though.

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An inexpensive fairly nice chocolate!

I find that with Tesco value products you never know what you will get, some Tesco value stuff is very good and some of it is awful. With these Tesco value after dinner mints you get something somewhere in between.

They are based on the design of the world famous after eight mint but can't come anywhere near being as good as them, the chocolate is much thicker and the mint fondant centre of the after eight seems to have been replaced by a runny liquid mint that isn't really all that nice.

The minty taste and the chocolate are still a nice combination but these are much more sickly than after eights and just don't have the same elegance either. I will still buy these again from time to time as they are a decent chocolate but just don't try to replace after eights with them.

I am not sure how they compare on the sugar and calories front with after eights because I have no after eights to hand but I can tell you that for every two Tesco value mints you will consume 10.3g of sugar along with 90 calories so no good if you are weight watching but what chocolate is!

At under 80p for a 200g box they are clearly much less expensive than after eights but that really does show up in their quality. If you take these as a chocolate treat in their own right they are fine but as a replacement for after eights they are poor!

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minty chocolate

I picked a box of these up a few weeks ago for a treat. That might not make sense, as these are cheap and aren't treats something indulgent and expensive? No, what I mean is i'm starting to try Tesco value products more and more, so I will pick the odd thing up and if I like it - great, if not I don't buy again, obviously!

First up Nutritional Values. Per 2 mints

90 Calories10.3g Sugar3.8g Fat2.3g SaturatesTrace Salt

The best before date is pretty good as well. The box I bought is for July 2009.

The design of the box is rectangular. It is mainly white with blue on the ends. It has the Tesco value name on the top and a picture of the sweets on the fronts of the box. I would say the packaging does look cheap, but the product is cheap and i'd rather that looked cheap and the sweets tasted good. The weight of the product is 200g and only costs 75p. Inside the box is a plastic insert, which is where the sweets are stacked onto.

So what is the sweets exactly? They are just like After Eights. After Eights chocolate is quite soft, but these Tesco ones is a bit crisper and thicker. Inside the chocolate is a peppermint filling. Not too runny, but not thick either. These are square in shape. The box has 20 of these in it.

The Tesco Value range always has a lot of everyday product, and more so treat products for a great price. The value range doesn't just cover bread, cheese, vegetables and so on. So if you've never tried these and shop in Tescos, go up the sweet aisle and pick a box of these up.

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Lovely! Yummy! Need I say more?!!

Tesco Value After Dinner Mints

Think After Eights but Nicer...!!!!

I love chocolate. But even more than that, I love minty chocolate. When I was pregnant I went completely off chocolate, but after I had my little girl, the rush for chocolate came back with a vengeance. I was lucky enough to receive a couple of boxes of After Eights as presents and soon wolfed my way through them. Now After Eights are pretty damn expensive if you ask me, so this is where the value aspect comes in.

During a recent online shopping spree at Tesco.com I found, in the virtual sweet isle, this delightful box of choccies, and could not believe the price. 75p. Yes, that's 75p for a whole box (200 sweet little grams) of minty chocolate. As they were Value, I didn't expect much, but popped them into my virtual basket and moved on to the boring task of locating and buying the washing up liquid.

When the Tesco man arrived with the shopping a couple of days later I had almost forgotten about the chocolate delights awaiting me, but found them, popped them in the fridge while I unpacked the bags, and then returned to find them all cold and crispy (just how I like them!)

The packaging is fairly standard for Tesco's value range - white and navy blue with the red Value label on the front. Inside there is a bit of corrogated card and then you get to the chocolates themselves. These are much chunkier than After Eights, with a great deal more chocolate to them and a runnier, less fondant, more syrup type of mint filling. Delicious! They still have the crispyness but are far more substantial than After Eights. The only other way they differ is that these are not individually wrapped, where After Eights are, and that's a shame, but they are still pretty good for the pennies you spend on them. I would be quite happy to serve these up as an after dinner treat to guests and I am sure the guests would thank me for it too, considering that these are bigger and in my opinion, better than their Nestle counterparts. For anyone who is boycotting Nestle, these are an ideal way of enjoying something that is very similar, and saving money at the same time!

I can heartily recommend these and will be adding another box to the next shopping trip - as I'm sure you can imagine, the last box didn't make it through the night....!!!

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A nice cheap treat every now and again!

For those of you who didn't already know it, I am a self-confessed complete and utter chocoholic!

On a recent trip to my local Tesco I had my usual craving for Chocolate, however with the news that I am now allowed to buy a puppy I have put myself on a strict budget as I now have to save up to buy the puppy! So I wondered down to the chocolate isle to see if I could find anything to fit my budget, and there on the next to bottom shelf was a while box with the wording "Tesco Value After Dinner Mints" and a little picture of these chocolates that look like after eights with the bargain price of just 78p! So I bought them!

Upon getting my cheap chocolate treat home, I ripped off the cellophane wrapper, flicked the lid open and divulged into the yummy chocolate goodness... which wasn't quite what I was expecting!

*** The Look ***

These After Dinner Mints look almost exactly the same as the brand After Eight mints, except these ones do not come in individual little envelopes, instead they come in a white box with the simple Tesco Value red and blue packaging and a small picture of what you are getting. The box is wrapped in a cellophane wrapper and upon removing this and lifting the flap to open the box there is a piece of white corrugated paper between the lid and the chocolates they're doing all they can to delay my chocolate munching! Finally I'm into the chocolates!

These after dinner mints are dark brown in colour; they are square shaped and are approximately 1 and half inches each side and about quarter of an inch deep. In the box they are separated in a plastic tray into 4 lots of 5, so there are 20 mints to one box. Lets get technical 20mints for 78p, that's 4p per mint bargain!

*** The Smell ***

Upon opening the box, the immediate smell of the chocolate hits you, you cannot smell any mint at all (unless one of the chocs has leaked!) at first this smell is not too bad, but after a couple of minutes I found myself having to shut the lid as the smell was becoming a bit overpowering.

*** The Taste ***

The taste is actually the part that shocked me, as it was completely different to what I was expecting. I was expecting a nice tasting creamy mint with a smooth plain chocolate to compliment the mint taste finished off with a lovely fresh minty aftertaste. However this is what I got

Upon biting into the plain chocolate shell the taste I received was more bitter than smooth, but it was ok as the nice creamy mint was soon overwhelming the taste of the chocolate. The mint itself is nice and creamy and very minty but not overpowering, however it is not as fresh tasting as other mint products I have tried. It is not strong enough to clear blocked noses, but it is also not so weak that you don't taste some freshness.

After demolishing one mint within seconds I thought I should try another just to be sure I was right on the taste, then I would wait and see what the after taste was like! Sure enough my taste test was right, so now for the aftertaste

Surprisingly the aftertaste to these mint chocolates is much nicer than the actual product itself! Once I had eaten the whole square the aftertaste immediately started to kick in, first it was a more chocolate based taste, however after a few minutes I am sitting here tasting the mintyness much more than the chocolate. If I didn't know I had eaten chocolate and was just getting this aftertaste then I would say I had just eaten a regular mint!

*** Other Information ***

As well as telling you what the product is called, the box also contains other useful information such as:

Also on the box is storage information, best before date, contact information and nutritional information.

I have noticed though that the nutrition information does not tell you the values per chocolate piece, instead it tells you per 100g, so if you wanted to know the value for each piece you would have to work out a way of working this out.

The box is a 200g box and costs 78p and can be found down the chocolates isle of your local Tesco near all the other tasty treats like After Eights and Chocolate Orange!

*** Recommended? ***

Well I've had a bit of a debate about whether to recommend you to this product and I am slipping slightly more towards a yes due to the lovely aftertaste! This is a nice product and I would say it is good value for the price you pay, however as with all cheaper chocolates you can defiantly notice the difference in quality. I would probably buy this chocolate again if I am still on my puppy budget when I am next shopping!